With election looming, Homestead council avoids property tax increase, keeps rates flat
Less than three weeks before early voting begins in Homestead’s primary election, the city’s seven-member council successfully avoided a significant tax hike by voting Monday on a budget that keeps the property tax rate flat for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1.
During the first of two budget hearings, the council agreed on a $203 million budget and tax rate of $6.20 per $1,000, the same rate Homestead property owners have paid the last eight years. The council will take a final vote to set the tax rate and budget on September 29.
The city’s initial budget proposal would have taxed property owners 23% higher than the current rate, putting Homestead in the minority of local governments in Miami-Dade County, many of which did not raise tax rates.
Property owners who recently received Truth in Millage statements (best known as “TRIM notices”) were informed the proposed rate would be $7.75 per $1,000 in taxable value — a number Homestead staff said was a “ceiling” from which the council could negotiate lower.
“My compliments are to the manager for herding these seven cats up here and making it happen,” said Homestead Mayor Steven Losner, who is running for another two-year term against former Mayor Jeffrey Porter and former Councilman Elvis Maldonado.
Homestead’s primary election is Oct. 5.
City staff originally proposed a tax increase after departments were asked to cut back on their budgets last year amid projected COVID-related losses in city revenues. The city is planning to raise salaries and pay for an increase in healthcare insurance costs and police pension plans, according to the proposed fiscal year 2021-22 budget.
The council pushed back, noting that residents of Homestead — which encompasses some of the poorest ZIP codes in Miami-Dade — may not be able to increase their expenses by 20%, especially amid the economic precarity the pandemic created.
“That is a tough nut to crack,” Councilman Sean Fletcher said during an August budget workshop.
Losner told staff at an earlier workshop in July that he was not inclined to support a hike in the tax rate.
“Until you demonstrate to me that we are being as efficient as we can, I am not going to be supportive of raising the millage rate,” Losner said.
Strategic cuts
With that feedback, staff drew up a revised budget based on a flat rate. City Manager Cate McCaffrey said after the first budget meeting in July that each department was asked to put their “wish list” into three categories and narrow down their priorities.
The exercise resulted in $160,000 in spending reductions, including cutting one council administrative assistant position and reducing the budget for police overtime. The budget was also boosted by a $583,000 bump in state revenue sharing and an increase in property values that allowed the city to earn $1.2 million more in property taxes while keeping the rate flat.
Even with the revisions, the budget the council voted to support Monday still added four new police officers, two new code enforcement officers, four additional development services staff and one parks “specialist.” The council, which relies on labor from a nearby detention center to cut the cost of maintaining public spaces, also voted to provide funding for one additional inmate crew to handle landscaping needs.
Losner praised McCaffrey Monday for altering the budget in a way that allowed the tax rate to remain flat.
“While she and I don’t always agree,” Losner said of McCaffrey, “upstairs we are respectful and receptive and always able to get to a solution.”
Losner, who voted against appointing McCaffrey in January 2020, citing his recent election and the fact that he had not worked with her before, also took the opportunity to make a dig at McCafffrey’s predecessor, George Gretsas, who resigned in 2019.
“One of the few discussions I had with your predecessor was ‘you know you’re going to have to raise taxes’,” Losner told McCaffrey from the dais. “Well you know what, because of you, we didn’t have to raise taxes. It’s a matter of doing the right thing and selecting the right priorities.”